Sopheon plc, the international provider of software and services that improve the financial return from innovation and product development investments, issues the following trading update for the six months to 30 June 2013.
In our Annual General Meeting announcement issued on 12 June, we noted that we had a substantial amount of business to close by the end of June. A good proportion has concluded successfully. Accordingly, revenue visibility is now £10.3 million, compared to just over £8 million at the time of the Annual General Meeting and £9.6 million a year ago. Thanks to these sales, we expect first half revenue to moderately exceed revenues for the corresponding period last year. As previously announced, we have continued a controlled expansion of staff levels in all parts of the business. These actions, coupled with the full-year effect of additional staff added during 2012, mean that our costs also exceed the previous year and accordingly the reported EBITDA result is expected to be moderately lower.
Further details of the results for the six months to 30 June 2013 will be provided in our interim financial report, scheduled for release on 22 August 2013. Expectations noted above are subject to completion of the period-end financial close and auditor review processes. Looking forward to the second half of the year, our sales pipeline remains strong. However, we would note that, as always in our industry, accurate prediction of the timing and value of sales events can be difficult.
Since our Annual General Meeting we have also completed the first phase of our corporate restructuring, to reduce the number of shares in issue by a factor of 20. This was successfully achieved through a two-step process involving a 10000:1 share consolidation followed by a 1:500 share subdivision one week later, in accordance with the circular issued to shareholders at the start of May. Overall, this has reduced the number of shares in issue from 145.6 million shares to 7.3 million shares. The nominal value of each share has changed from 5p to 20p. This procedure also reduced the number of shareholders on the Company’s UK register from approximately 4000 to approximately 200. As previously explained these figures do not include shareholders in the Dutch system, which were anticipated to fall from over 7000 shareholders to under 2000 shareholders. Due to differences in the way that shares are held in the Netherlands, we have yet to establish the precise impact on Dutch holdings at this time but continue to make appropriate enquiries and will update the market as and when appropriate. We aim to complete the second phase of our restructuring, the elimination of the accumulated deficit on the profit and loss account, later this year, as planned.
About Sopheon
Sopheon (LSE: SPE) partners with customers to provide complete Enterprise Innovation Performance solutions including software, expertise, and best-practices to achieve exceptional long-term revenue growth and profitability. Sopheon’s Accolade® solution provides unique, fully-integrated coverage for the entire innovation management and new product development lifecycle. For the first time, businesses can access a single source of the truth across strategic innovation planning, roadmapping, idea and concept development, process and project management, and portfolio and in-market management. Sopheon’s solutions have been implemented by over 200 customers with over 60,000 users in over 50 countries. Sopheon is listed on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange and on the Alternext Exchange in the Netherlands.